1 Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the place David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 2 He began building on the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign. 3 These were the foundation dimensions Solomon used to build the house of God, according to the old standard of measurement: about ninety feet long and thirty feet wide. 4 The porch at the front extended across the width of the house, about thirty feet long, and was about a hundred and eighty feet high. He overlaid its interior with pure gold. 5 He paneled the main hall with cypress wood and overlaid it with fine gold, decorating it with palm trees and chains. 6 He adorned the house with precious stones for beauty. The gold was gold from Parvaim. 7 He overlaid the house—its beams, thresholds, walls, and doors—with gold, and carved cherubim on the walls.

8 He made the Most Holy Place about thirty feet long, corresponding to the width of the house, and thirty feet wide. He overlaid it with about twenty-three tons of fine gold. 9 The gold used for the nails weighed about twenty ounces. He also overlaid the upper rooms with gold. 10 In the Most Holy Place he made two sculpted cherubim, and they overlaid them with gold. 11 The wings of the cherubim spanned about thirty feet in all. One wing of the first cherub was about seven and a half feet long and touched the wall of the house; its other wing was about seven and a half feet long and touched the wing of the other cherub. 12 One wing of the other cherub was about seven and a half feet long and touched the wall of the house; its other wing was about seven and a half feet long and joined the wing of the first cherub. 13 The outstretched wings of these cherubim spanned about thirty feet. They stood on their feet, facing the house.

14 He made the curtain of blue, purple, and crimson cloth and fine linen, and decorated it with cherubim.

15 In front of the house he made two pillars, about fifty-two and a half feet high, with a capital on top about seven and a half feet high.

16 He made chains in the inner sanctuary and put them on the tops of the pillars. He made a hundred pomegranates and put them on the chains. 17 He set up the pillars in front of the temple, one on the right and one on the left. He named the one on the right Jachin and the one on the left Boaz.